Tag Archives: wilderness

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

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The Call of the Wild: Jack London: 8580001049755: Amazon.com: Books

The work tells the story of Buck, a pet dog of Judge Miller’s family, who has been living in a warm valley in southern California after being civilized. He was sold to the cold, remote, gold-rich northern state of Alaska as a sled dog. The dog who should represent the civilized world as a dog is forced to return to barbarism by his master. Growing up in a greenhouse, Buck was stolen and sold to the wild as a sled dog. The cruel reality touched Buck’s instinct and consciousness of returning to nature due to the long influence of human civilization. Buck was trained by the harsh living conditions, and he grew through them. In the end, he won the first place in the sled dog pack by defeating the king Spitz. When the cruel Hal had beaten Buck black and blue and was almost dead, John Thornton’s rescue made Buck feel warm and decided to pledge his loyalty to his patron to the end. However, the death of the benefactor completely broke Buck’s attachment to human society, so Buck was determined to go to the wilderness and return to nature.

First of all, the image of the dog in the novel is in sharp contrast to the image of the human. Dogs (Buck) are brave, kind, loyal, grateful, highly adaptable, and have excellent leadership skills, while humans are mostly hypocritical and tyrants. Buck was sold to a dog dealer and moved from the comfort of Judge Miller’s home to the rigors of northern life, but he soon adapted to the rules of existence. Even if there were no foreboding in the air, he could dig a hole by a tree or a bank, and hide safely from the strong wind. Buck used the best of management to keep the dogs in order. It pulled up a thousand pounds of flour and won the bet. Humans, on the other hand, still treat dogs with ropes, cages, and sticks. To satisfy their own desires, they do not care about the fate of other creatures. Man thinks he has the right to truth, and he thinks he is the supreme master of the dog. It is just because of a series of selfish behaviors of human beings that lead to the tragic fate of the dogs, and at the same time, human beings also suffer bad consequences. Hal and his family are buried in the White River, and Buck finally returns to the wilderness.

-Coreen C.

Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway

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Amazon.com: Green Hills of Africa: The Hemingway Library Edition ...

From November 1933 to February 1934, Hemingway went hunting in Kenya with his second wife, Pauline Pfeiffer, and his good friend Karl. Upon his return, Hemingway vowed to write a “book of absolute truth” that would be “as good as fiction,” and hence came the Green Hills of Africa. Hemingway, with amazing memory and exquisite writing, recreated the hunting experience in the remote mountains and forests of Africa, allowing readers to feel the thrilling scene of the author’s battle of wits and courage with animals and listen to the unique roaring and howling of lions in Africa. At the same time, Hemingway vividly describes the competitive and jealous nature of his competition with Karl, mercilessly dissecting himself and displaying manly honesty.

A passage in the book about the critical community’s praise and abuse of writers makes it easy to read today. Hemingway’s Green Hills of Africa is full of the powerful beauty of tension and yet life erupting. Even after getting used to this unimaginable activity, the author begins to look at the wildlife around him with a slightly wild, but not without beauty. Hemingway, after fierce fights with lions and other wild animals, began to appreciate this kind of life and gradually found his own fun through every bit of this life style. In the text, the roar of the lion and the low cry of the beast are not just a phenomenon of biological activity, but form a fascinating landscape painting.

Hemingway quietly observed in the dark, listening and finally appreciated what happened here scene after scene. In the end, the author also presents his observations and experiences of the natural scenery and living conditions in Africa through a long description. Through the description of these scenes, the author shows his inner love and yearning for nature and a simple natural life. After the long development of human society, people often get lost in many material needs. In the natural scenery, it can better show the real pursuit of human heart and human yearning for purity.

-Coreen C.

Child of God by Cormac McCarthy

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Child of God: Cormac McCarthy: 9780679728740: Amazon.com: Books

In the Appalachian town of Seville, Tennessee, a 27-year-old young man named Ballard is deprived of his property by the town government for not paying property taxes. He is forced to retreat to the wilderness and gradually degenerates into a pathological killer and necrophiliac. Ballard is an Appalachian native, an oddity to outsiders, an outlier to the local community. After a fire, Ballard went to live in a cave, taking on an increasingly primitive look. He is losing his house, his reputation, his social ties, and his life. Modern civilization gradually retreated backward into the wilderness, to the edge of the world, and finally there was no way back. How does a person become progressively deprived? How could a naked life exist without anything? He was determined to go on, for there was no way back, and the world was as lovely as any other day, but he was riding his mule to death. Child of God is Cormac McCarthy’s third novel, written in a sober, everyday style about murder and mysterious nature. The short, concise and thick sentences are interlaced with long, grotesque sentences, with rich southern Gothic flavor and dark romantic color. Under McCarthy’s indifferent and compassionate eyes, young Ballard’s lonely life was like a cruel and moving wilderness epic, with the exiles singing silently from beginning to end.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

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I recently read Lord of the Flies by William Golding for my English class. When my teacher first introduced my class to this book, I thought it’d be like the other books we’ve read in school last year, and I was not particularly thrilled to read it. However, the story Lord of the Flies tells is extremely chaotic and I found myself liking the book more and more.

The novel is about a group of extremely young British school boys who are stranded on an island and who thought it would be heaven on Earth since there are no adults around and no rules to obey. However, the boys soon realize that they need to establish ground rules and the makeshift democracy seemed to work for a while. To be honest, I didn’t think boys 10 years and younger paid much attention to politics. However, as the book progresses, the reader could tell that the boys are actually shredding their civilized self and becoming more and more animal like and savage. Jack, the main antagonist, even manages to first handedly murder 3 boys who were on the island. I know. I’m shocked too.

The novel opens with its protagonist, Ralph, and I found myself disliking the immature, “fair” boy who the others choose as leader of their “society”. However, I felt pity towards the social outcast, Piggy. Piggy is ostracized because he is overweight, has asthma, and he has glasses. I could relate more to Piggy because I’m more or less a nerd myself, and I felt angry at how today’s society isolates the nerdy kids, as well. As the book progresses, the shockingly brutal actions that the young boys perform caused me to think about the savagery that exists in our own society and how Golding is right to stress that everyone has innate evil in them and how it cannot be killed. I like this book for this sole reason: this book is not merely about a group of immature school boys, it is about chaos, fear, danger, savagery, and above all, the degeneration of human nature. Golding cleverly intervenes references, plot, and personalities into his masterpiece and I never thought I’d learn so much about human nature through a book that we’ve read in English. Lord of the Flies has taught me a valuable lesson and I would definitely recommend it for a light read outside of school.

-Angela L.

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free from Overdrive. 

The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin

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First off, I need to say that this book is a different genre than I normally read. I usually read romance but this novel is more of an adventure novel than a romance. Anyways, on with the review!
Ben and Ashley are complete strangers until they meet at the airport.  They start chatting and as they wait to board the same plane. The snowstorm becomes too strong and the flight gets canceled. Ben finds a way for them to get home on a private flight, he rushed back to get Ashley who is on her way home to get married.
Making things even more interesting between the both of them  after their plane crashes, leaving them stranded in the mountains. Ben protects her as their time in the mountains stretches into months. Along the story we get snippets into Ben’s life before any of this happened, as he talks to his wife.
All in all I thought this was a great book, it was a little lengthy though.
-Skylar N.
The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available for download from Overdrive.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

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Lord of the Flies is a classic novel by William Golding. It begins on an island in the middle of nowhere where a group of boys have been marooned. Nobody knows their whereabouts, and neither do they.

However, this book is not just a typical story about survival. It tells of the darkest, deepest secrets of humankind, and how those ordinary, nice boys turned into completely different people under those circumstances. Into savages.

The first two boys introduced are the main protagonists of the story: Ralph is among the oldest of the boys, handsome and confident, while Piggy, as he is derisively called, is a pudgy asthmatic boy with glasses who nevertheless possesses a keen intelligence. Ralph finds a conch shell, and when he blows it the other boys gather together. Among these boys is Jack Merridew, an aggressive boy who marches at the head of his choir. Ralph, whom the other boys choose as chief, leads Jack and another boy, Simon, on an expedition to explore the island.

There is plenty of everything on the island, including food and drink. At first, all of the boys are reluctantly to kill, as what the huge decision would mean loomed upon them. But eventually Jack is the first one to make that move, and as he keeps on doing it, he becomes more and more comfortable with it.

Jack Merridew is one of the first boys to go savage, creating himself a group of savage hunters that kill and hunt for fun. The only ones that remain goodhearted are Ralph and Piggy, who’s glasses represent knowledge and wisdom. They know that the goal is to get rescued, nothing more.

But the question is: will these group of boys survive on this island? Or will they be doomed forever?

-Katherine L.

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available for download from Overdrive.